Pretending
by gleechick94
Summary: Journey of Nationals... FINCHEL!
1. Chapter 1

_Hey guys… I don't know if you have heard it yet but this a story based on the New York journey of Finn and Rachel. My idea of what should happen in the final two episodes. Takes place after Prom. I am still continuing on with my other story though _

Mr. Shue walked into the choir room, "Ok guys, Nationals are in three weeks and we need a set list." Everybody automatically looked to Rachel, who was looking down at the ground. "I don't have any ideas." Everyone just gaped at her. Except for Finn, who was looking at her with tears in his eyes and Finn Hudson never cried. "That's fine Rachel. I think since it is the day after prom I am going to forget about rehearsals today but you all must be at rehearsal tomorrow. No exceptions" Everyone got out of their seats except Rachel, who took her time packing her bag. "Rachel?" A familiar voice asked. She looked up from the floor and into Finn's gorgeous chocolate brown eyes. "Yea?"

"Are you okay? You seemed really off today."

"I'm fine Finn. Now you should go Quinn is probably waiting for you."

"Come on Rach."

Her entire body froze he hadn't called her Rach in months. She felt tears coming to the brims of her eyes. She got up and started to walk past Finn when he noticed something. "Rachel?"

"What Finn?" she asked as she slowly turned around to face him.

"Why do you have a bruise on your cheek?"

Her hand immediately flew to her face. "I don't have a bruise on my cheek."

"Yes you do Rachel, now let me see!"

She reluctantly took her hand off her cheek to reveal a good-sized bruise on her cheek.

"Rach, who did this to you?"

"I doesn't matter Finn. The past is the past, and why do you care so much anyway?"

"Rachel even though we aren't together anymore does not mean I don't care about you. Now I want to know who did this to you."

"Why?"

"Because… you are my best friend Rach and that's what friends do. They beat the crap out of the people who do stuff like this to their best friends."

"I don't think you would beat the living crap out of the person who did this."

"It was Quinn wasn't it?"

When Rachel bit her lower lip Finn knew that Quinn was the person who had slapped Rachel. "Ug! I am so fed up with her and her queen bitch attitude!"

"Finn it really isn't a big deal."

"No, this has gone way to far. I should have never started this relationship back up. I thought she had changed. Dammit! Why am I so stupid!"

"Hey, come on you are not stupid! Do not sell yourself short. The only reason you believe you are stupid is because that is how she makes you feel. Worthless, stupid, a waste of space. But Finn, you are not any of those things. You are an amazing person with a heart made of gold. Never, ever let anyone tell you different."

"Thanks Rach, that means a lot coming from you."

"Of course."

She grabbed her backpack and left the choir room. Once she was gone Finn realized that he never loved Quinn, and that Rachel was his soul mate and he was going to get her back no matter what it cost him.


	2. Chapter 2

_Hey everyone, I got a lot of Story Alerts just so everyone knows I am not using the promos for very much. Maybe just Finchel stuff with the spoilers. Thank you all it means so much to me so here is the next chapter. Enjoy._

Finn was at his locker the next day grabbing books for his next class when he saw Quinn with a blue slushy in her hand. "Quinn!" Her head whipped around to face her boyfriend, "Oh, hey Finn." She said in an oblivious voice. "What are you doing with that slushy?"

"Oh nothing, just going to drink it."

"Don't lie to me."

"Excuse me?"

"It's for Rachel isn't it?"

"So what if it is?"

"She is our teammate. Have you forgotten how she was there for you last year?"

"Why are you defending her? I'm your girlfriend; you should be defending me, not her."

"No."

"No what?"

"No you aren't my girlfriend anymore."

"You are breaking up with me?"

"Yup."

"Fine." She turned on her heel and walked right up to Rachel's locker where she was standing and dumped the slushy on top of her head. Rachel blinked quickly trying to get the cold corn syrup out of her eyes. She grabbed her emergency slushy duffel bag and closed her locker; she was about to slip on the slushy that was on the ground when she felt two big strong arms catch her before she hit the ground. She turned around to see Finn staring down at her. "Hey, come on lets go get you cleaned up."

She started to walk again and once again almost slipped on the slushy on the ground. Finn caught her again except this time he picked her up bridal style and carried her to the girl's bathroom. The whole time he was carrying her she was arguing with him "Finn put me down, you are getting covered in slushy."

"It's fine I don't mind."

"I am perfectly capable to walk by myself Finn."

"Really, then how come you almost slipped twice?"

"Fine."

Finn gave her his lopsided grin that he reserved especially for her. She felt her heart melt a little inside. He walked into the girl's bathroom still carrying her bridal style. Thankfully there was no one in the bathroom except for them. The just stood in the girl's bathroom just looking into each other's eyes. "Finn?"

"Mmmhmmm."

"You can put me down now, I am getting you covered in slushy."

"Oh right, sorry." He slowly set her down on the ground handed her the duffel bag as she began to get to work. She grabbed a chair that was in the corner of the bathroom and set it down in front of one of the sinks and stuck her head under the tap in attempt to get the slushy out of her hair. "Here sit back I got it." She relaxed in the chair and stuck her head under the tap. He gently got the sticky mess out of her hair. He took a bit of shampoo in his hands and worked it into her hair. He then washed it out and did the same with the conditioner. She sat up when he was finished and he wrapped a towel around her head. "Thanks." She said to him.

"Don't mention it."

She grabbed her fresh change of clothes from her bag and walked into one of the stalls to get changed as he began to clean up. He looked in her bag and saw a tiny hair dryer. He smiled to himself. She was always so prepared. He picked up the little hair dryer and plugged it into the wall waiting for Rachel to come out of the stall so he could dry her hair. She walked of the stall wearing dark wash jeans, and a baggy long sleeved pink shirt with her hair still wrapped up in a towel. She had never looked more beautiful to him. "Hey, come here I need to dry your hair so you don't have to walk around all day with it wet."

She beamed her 1000-watt smile at him. "Thanks."

She stood in front of the mirror as he turned on the blow dryer and began to run his hands through her hair to dry it.

After out 15 minutes her hair was dry. "There you go, all done."

"Thanks Finn, I owe you one."

"No you don't."

She put all the stuff back into the bag and they walked back to her locker. There was still slushy on the round in front of her locker and she didn't notice it so she slipped… again and Finn was still there to catch her. She began to blush. She put the stuff away in her locker. He didn't know what he was doing but all of the sudden he blurted out, "Hey since we missed lunch do you maybe want to go get some food from somewhere."

The stunned look on her face had him scared until she smiled and said, "I'd love to."

The walked to his truck together and he opened the door for her. "Thanks." She smiled at him. Then he made sure she was in before he closed the door and walked around to the driver's side of the car. He put his keys in the ignition and drove out of the school parking lot.


	3. Chapter 3

_Hey everyone. I got lots of favorites/ story alerts. Thank you all so much I am glad you like the story. Here is the next chapter. Enjoy._

When they arrived at the mall they went straight to the food court. He went to McDonalds, of course. Whereas Rachel went to the little Greek stand towards the end of all the food places. He was the first back to the table they had picked out with a burger and fries. She came back shortly after with a Greek salad. For the first few minutes they ate in silence. Just enjoying their food. Then she reached across the table towards Finn and grabbed one of his fries "Hey!"

"Hi!" She smirked.

"Ha ha very funny."

"I thought it was funny." She beamed her 1000-watt smile at him, which never fails to tie his stomach in knots.

"So," he asked, "have you thought about songs we might sing at nationals?"

"Yea, I wanted to do original songs again."

"I was thinking the same thing."

"However, the song that I wrote for regionals took me a long time to write and we only have 2 weeks until we leave for nationals."

"Yea, I guess."

"Well, anyways I guess we should be getting back to school."

"Do we have to?"

"Yes Finn. We have to go back to school."

He began to pout. She felt sympathy for an instant, and then realized it was a ploy to get them to stay at the mall longer. She just rolled her eyes and grabbed his hand and dragged him back to his truck. He was pouting the entire ride back to the school. Rachel almost took pity on him, but to keep herself from giving in she stared outside the rest of the ride back to the school. However when they pulled up to a stoplight she felt Finn burning holes in her head. She slowly, and reluctantly turned her head to look at Finn, who was staring at her with massive puppy dog eyes and a quivering bottom lip. Rachel slowly had a smile break out across her face. Then before she knew it she was crying she was laughing so hard. He began to laugh along with her. She still had not finished laughing by the time Finn has pulled into the parking lot. When she felt the car stop and Finn turn off the car she turned to face Finn. "I had lots of fun today. Thank you."

"Don't mention it. You have seemed really down lately it's good to hear your laugh."

Rachel undid her seatbelt and began leaning over to the driver's side of the car and gave Finn a hug. He hugged back pulling her closer to his chest. When she began to pull away he didn't want to let go but he figured he had to let her go, for now anyways. ;) "Come on. Class starts in 5 minutes." She told him. Once again he pulled out the puppy dogface. She laughed and rolled her eyes and got out of the truck but before she could get out Finn grabbed her wrist and pulled her towards him until their lips met. He tried to kiss her but she pulled away with tears in her eyes, "F-F-FFF- inn, this has to stop."

"What?"

"You can't keep playing with my feelings. I want us to be friends but that is all we will ever be."

"Rach, you cannot be serious."

"Do you have any idea of how messed up I was after our breakup? You keep hurting me over and over and I keep coming back to you and I bring down the walls around my heart then you go again and you smash it into a million pieces. When we were dating you never stood up for me when Santana, Brittany, Quinn and everyone else in the school made fun of me and picked on me. How do you think that made me feel? My own boyfriend wouldn't even stick up for me, you think I didn't have low enough self-esteem as it was then to think all the stuff that they were saying to me was true because my boyfriend never denied it. You said you loved me but you never showed it. Then I find out you slept with that whore! Now she is going to have a part of you that I never will. Then I kissed Puck, and I will regret it for the rest of my life but I never got to explain to you why I did it and you never gave Puck a chance to explain. The day after Santana told me what had happened I was going to talk to you about it then I see you flirting with Santana. We hadn't even broken up yet! I was devastated then Puck was there for me, when you weren't! Then at couples counseling you called Santana super-hot and never have you ever called me hot. So you know what? Only talk to me in Glee, but don't try to be my friend anymore. I can't take you constantly breaking my heart then me having to fix it on my own. I know you listened to me during Jar of Hearts and that song was directed towards you… not anyone else… you." And with that she got out of the truck and ran into the school. Finn sat in his truck frozen and the thing that brought him out of his trance was the ringing of the bell. When he grabbed his bag from the back of the truck he realized he had one tear falling down his face.


	4. Chapter 4

_Hey everyone, thank you all so much for your kind reviews… I appreciate it! Here is the next chapter… Enjoy!_

Rachel ran as fast as she could through the front doors of the school and ran into the girl's bathroom. Thankfully there was no one was in there, so she walked over to a wall in the bathroom and began to cry. She knew she had to get to class but the next class she had was Biology, with Finn. She couldn't see his face without breaking down and crying in the middle of class. So she sat on the bathroom floor and cried. Then all of the sudden she heard a voice, "Rachel?" Her head flew up to the sound of the voice; it was Kurt. He looked at her and said, "Aweh, sweetie what happened?" He walked down and sat beside her. She leaned over and began to cry into Kurt's shoulder, she couldn't get any words out because she was crying so hard. Kurt just consoled her by rubbing his hand up and down her back. When the tears finally subsided Kurt gently asked, "Now tell me who did this to you so I can tell the guys to kick his ass." She felt the corners of her lip begin tug up, she smiled… almost. "I don't think they would kick their teammates ass."

"It was Finn, wasn't it?"

She slightly nodded and tears began to come to her eyes.

"Gosh, why is he always making you cry?"

"I can't keep putting my heart in these positions. I bring the walls down around my heart then he seems to smash it into millions of little pieces then I am stuck by myself putting those pieces back together."

"I know; are you going to tell me what he did."

So right there on the bathroom floor she told Kurt what had happened. When she got to the ending she couldn't help but sob a little. By the end of the story Kurt was furious. "What an asshole! He just broke up with Quinn not even 4 hours ago and he has already moved on! Doesn't that kinda make you feel like the rebound?"

"Yea it does. I don't want to be the girl that Finn uses to make Quinn jealous."

"Well, don't worry about it we need to get to glee anyway. New York here we come bitches!"

Rachel laughed at her best friend and they got up of the bathroom floor, linked arms and walked to glee club together. When they arrived Rachel was laughing at something Kurt had said. When she looked at the club everyone was already there, but Mr. Shue hadn't arrived yet. There were two seats left, one beside Quinn, and the other one beside Finn, Kurt turned to her and whispered in her ear, "Which seat do you want?"

"I'll take the one beside Finn."

"Are you sure?"

"Yea, I'll be fine."

She walked over to the front row where Finn was sitting and took the seat on his left. He looked a little surprised that she was actually sitting near him, let alone next to him. He smiled at her and whispered "Hey."

"Hi."

"Come on Rach, we are friends."

"No Finn we aren't."

"This doesn't make sense you have been pushing me to go out with you again for the past 5 months then all of the sudden I am ready to be with you and then you don't want anything to do with me!"

"Fine! You want to know why! Because I don't want to be your second choice. For god sake's you just broke up with Quinn less then 6 hours ago then all the sudden you want to be with me. I am worth so much more then that, even if you don't think that…."

"…Rach, I neve-"

"Let me finish! I can't keep getting back together with you! I can't keep putting my heart into these positions just to have it be stomped on then I slowly bleed to death then when I finally after all these months put my heart back together you want to do the exact same thing that cause me all this pain. Now we have nationals in two weeks so I can't go anywhere but please I am begging you just stop talking to me and breaking my heart."

She turned away from him to talk to Mercedes then all of the sudden Mercedes pulled Rachel into a hug. He noticed her shoulders were shaking. He knew that he was in love with Rachel and he had to find a way to show her that, to show her she was always my first choice. Finn was coming up with a plan in his head as Mr. Shue walked in "Okay guys, nationals are in two weeks and we need a set list. Who has ideas?"

Finn shot his hand up. "Yes, Finn?"

"I think we should do original songs again."

"Who else thinks we should do original songs for nationals?" Everyone in the club raised their hand. "Alright, you all have your assignment. Write two amazing songs for nationals. I am going to let you go and begin to work on your song writing."

Before he could say anything to Rachel she was out the door. He took a deep breath and walked out into the parking lot and into his car. He drove all the way home and went straight to his room mumbling a hello to his mother and Burt. He got up to his room and began to think, "Why the hell did I pretend I still didn't have feelings for her? Why aren't we together? I am so done pretending… pretending. He instantly had an idea for a song. He sat down at his desk and pulled out a piece of paper and a pencil and he kept writing as if his life depended on it. Well his love life depended on it and if he didn't get Rachel back he would die so his life literally depended on it.


	5. Chapter 5

_Hey everyone thanks so much for all your kind reviews here is the next chapter, sorry it took me so long to update… _

Finn wrote his song all night, he didn't even care that he was up until 5 that morning he had finished the song for nationals. He ran down the hallway that morning and right into Mr. Shue's office. He was out of breath when he got there it took him a minute to catch his breath.

"Hey Finn, what's up?"

"I- finished- a song- for- nationals."

"Really?" Finn nodded his head "Ok let me see the lyrics." Finn handed out the piece of paper that contained the music that was going to win over Rachel's heart. Mr. Shue took the paper from Finn's hands and began to read. The more he read the bigger the smile became on his face. When he reached the bottom of the page he looked up at Finn with a huge smile plastered to his face. "Finn, this is an amazing song. Is it a solo?"

"No it's a duet."

"Well, since you wrote the song, who do you want to sing the song for the competition?"

"Well- uh I was kinda thinking it could be a duet between me and Rachel."

"Ok, well I will call a group meeting and we can begin to practice and write our group number."

"Awesome." Finn walked towards the door but before he left he turned around to face his teacher, "Thanks Mr. Shue." Mr. Shue just smiled and nodded his head at him. Nothing took the smile off of his face the entire day. Not even sitting in Calculus 1, which was something he did not understand at all. As the final bell rang signaling the end of the day he went to his locker and grabbed his backpack and began to walk to the choir room. The hallways were already empty. It still amazed him how fast people wanted to get out of the building because there was no one left within 10 minutes. He was lost in his train of thought when he heard lockers being slammed like something had hit them, or someone. He ran towards the next hallway over where he had heard the sound coming from he saw Karofsky standing over someone and laughing. He ran up to him and grabbed the back of his football jacket and threw him out of the way of his unconscious victim. He did not take his eyes off of Karofsky because he knew the second he did Karofsky was going to kill him. He knew that the choir room was at the end of the hallway if he could just have a way to tell them to get out here and help him. That is when it hit him. He put one of his hands in his pocket and called Kurt. When he heard a faint hello on the other end he began to talk.

"So Karofsky, why are you here in this hallway after school hurting innocent people that probably did nothing to you."

"Whatever Finnessa… don't you have glee to be at?"

"Actually I was on my way there. You do know THAT THE CHOIR ROOM IS A FEW DOORS DOWN FROM WHERE WE ARE STANDING."

"Jesus, why the fuck are you yelling?"

"Was I yelling I'm sorry. But it doesn't matter there is no one left in these classrooms anyway." Finn looked past Karofsky and saw Kurt poking his head out of the choir room door. But Kurt vanished just as quickly as he came. Finn was hoping he had understood the message. Thankfully 30 seconds later everyone in glee club began to walk out of the choir room with Mr. Shue leading the pack. Then all of the sudden they were right behind Karofsky. Mr. Shue put a hand on his shoulder "Come on Dave, I'm taking you to see Figgins." Finn smirked at him then turned to look at his team. They all had frozen looks on their faces, all of the girls and Kurt had tears forming in their eyes and the guys looked scared. He slowly turned around to see who the victim was. That is when he knew what everyone was feeling. He saw the lifeless body lying on the ground with a small pool of blood coming out from her stomach. He ran towards the girl and checked her pulse; it was there but just barley. "SOMEONE CALL 911!" he screamed at his team. Mercedes already had her phone out and was talking to the operator on the other end of the line. When she was finished talking to them she looked at Finn and said, "They will be here in 10 minutes." He looked at the lifeless girl in his arms and began to cry. Mercedes walked over to Finn and pulled him into a hug to try and console him. After what seemed like an eternity the Paramedics were running through the halls carrying a stretcher when the medics tried to take Rachel from his arms he was reluctant. Mercedes grabbed onto his hands and pulled them from the grasp he had on Rachel and let the doctors take her from him. One of the nurses walked over to the group and said, "Okay we can have three people in the ambulance with her, who wants to go?" Finn raced down the hallway that the doctors had just taken Rachel on not a minute ago. Mercedes and Kurt were hot on his heels. When they were out of sight no one moved it was Puck that got the group of their trance, "COME ON! Let's get to the hospital."

And with that they all ran down the hallway and into the parking lot and into their respective cars and all drove as fast as they could to the hospital.

_Hey guys, I am not happy with the way this chapter turned out… but if you could review that would be amazing 3 Thanks guys 3_


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